Wednesday, May 3, 2017

Overview of the April 2017 Issue of PCG's Philadelphia Trumpet

PCG has released another issue of their recruitment magazine (April 2017) to attempt to gain more triple tithes paying converts. Back in 2012 one of PCG's booklets boasted that PCG had an income of about $19.5 million. Even as early as 1996 PCG boasted of enjoying more than $5 million in annual income. Recently PCG has even bought its own plane.

This issue has a circulation of 267,569 issues. March's circulation was 271,949. February's circulation was 273,591. January's circulation was 267,992. November-December was 277,131. October was 280,116. September was 282,121. August was 278,357.

Gerald Flurry insists that there is an end time Jeroboam in his personal article. Other sources state that he is talking about President Trump.

Richard Palmer has an article scare mongering that the United States protectionism will cause Latin American countries to seek alternative business.

Richard Palmer also has an article scare mongering that Russia and Germany have ties to each other. PCG teaches that Germany is destined to launch a crushing military attack upon the United States and conquer it shortly before Christ's return.

Jorg Mardian has an article criticizing the measuring of one's intake of calories.

Andrew Müller has an article scare mongering about sanctuary cities and makes the paranoid claim that sanctuary cities will somehow plunge the United States into a second civil war.

The Infographic scare mongers about illegal immigrants. It even lists a scary list of statistics of crimes allegedly committed by "criminal aliens" even though immigrants commit less crimes than the rest of the population. It is easy to condemn those who are not citizens and who cannot vote.

Kieran Underwood has an article scare mongering that Germany may soon decide to have nuclear weapons of their own.

Stephen Flurry has an article discussing the northern Kingdom of Israel's establishment of a shrine at Tell Dan to discourage the people from worshiping in the Temple at Jerusalem during the time of King Jeroboam. The article is illustrated with a picture of stones of the ruins of Tell Dan, one of the centers of worship in the northern Kingdom of Israel. PCG's 1% lavish so much attention on ancient ruins. But what about all the other peoples who lived there? What about the people who live there now?

Gerald Flurry has an article promoting HWA's highly flawed God Family doctrine insisting that humanity has the potential to become God beings as fully God as God is God though of a lower rank. This contradicts what is taught by the vast majority of Christian churches.

Joel Hilliker has a little article calling upon readers to remove one's own flaws before doing so to others.

Sam Livingston has an article scare mongering that the State of California is cursed by (PCG's) God citing the temporary evacuation near the Oroville Dam. PCG has taught for decades that the State of California is cursed for hosting the headquarters of Tkach's WCG.

WorldWatch discusses renewed fighting in eastern Ukraine; the Bundesbank retrieving 583 tonnes of gold from vaults in the United States and France; tensions with Iran; Russian Foreign Minister Lavrov's announcement of the Russian government hosting a conference in Afghanistan in February; increased Russian military presence in the Arctic; Russia and China improving their weapons; Chinese President Xi's speech at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland; and scare mongering about Mexico and the European Union speeding up negotiations about updating their free trade agreement.

SocietyWatch discusses police raids against human trafficking in California; scare mongering about Obama's endorsement of anti-Trump protests; and protests that descended into a riot in Berkeley that stopped a speech scheduled to be given given by Milo Yiannopoulos (who would soon be tossed out after he went too far one too many times).

This issue has letters. Here's one letter from Canada persuaded after reading one of PCG's articles that Japan is on the path to militarism. PCG has a long history of scare mongering that Japan will soon become a powerful military power.

How sad that Japanese leadership would
lead its people down the same path to
destruction! ....
God help them remember an elderly man
who went to Japan in the 1980s and told the
leadership at the time that “a strong hand
from someplace” was mankind’s only hope.

Here's one letter from Oregon from a person who wished more people would pay attention to PCG's recruitment magazine.

I just read Mr. Flurry’s “Great Again” article, and I wish more people would give the Trumpet more priority. A lot of people scoff at the idea of a church also being a provider of news; yet at times, it seems like the Trumpet is the only provider of true journalism.

Here's one letter from Alabama which cites a deadly attack to insist that PCG's speculations about the future of the Holy Land is correct.

Amazing, before the ink has dried on this
article..., East Jerusalem suffers this
horrible terrorist attack with a Palestinian
man ramming his truck into a crowd of Israeli
soldiers. This shows the veracity of your
report, and the sureness of Bible prophecy.

How awful it is that this act of violence is reduced into speculation fodder to present PCG as being able to see the future. Those who suffer deserve better.

And so we see that PCG had produced yet another issue of their recruitment magazine to attempt to gain new tithes paying recruits and keep their followers mesmerized into thinking that PCG's leaders can see the future.

However since its founding in 1989 PCG has made at least 52 failed predictions. Getting a British columnist to talk at their headquarters cannot change that fact. Clearly PCG's leaders are but false prophets. There is no need to fear their dire proclamations about the future. They cannot see the future.

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Coming soon in a future post: An Overview of the May 2017 Issue of PCG's Philadelphia Trumpet

If You are new please read this

Hand in Hand for Syria

Keep Somalia's Remittances Open

I encourage readers to sign this petition from Oxfam calling upon the U.S. government to let the Somali diaspora continue to send remittance to their loved ones in Somalia.

Moves have been made to shut down such remittances from Somalis in America. Many Somalis need these remittances. The remittances to Somalia are larger than foreign aid contributions and are a lifeline to these people caught in trouble and turmoil.

It is true that HWA said that some Eastern European states would break away from Moscow's orbit and join the European Empire he said would arise at any moment. But he never talked of the Soviet Union collapsing. He did not teach that. Also he portrayed the rise of the European Empire to be far quicker then what has actually happened. In Mystery of the Ages Christ was supposed to return by 2005 at the most.

So assertions that the fall of the Berlin Wall somehow prove that HWA was right is just complete nonsense spread by people who, for whatever reason, are still in denial that HWA was a false prophet who merely talked out of his own "human reasoning".

Truth about Roderick C. Meredith

What sort of man is he? A man who could say things like this.

"Mr. Armstrong has reminded us again that we are to disfellowship any members who attend GTA's [Garner Ted Armstrong's] campaigns, church services or other meetings. Some of our weaker members apparently do not realize that this man is in direct rebellion against God and His government! We must not allow them, or ourselves, to rationalize about this matter, to try to "help the underdog," or in any other way lend support to one whose gross immorality, whose long standing "play acting" and hypocrisy, and whose direct insubordination to the Government of God has long been and is now a source of confusion and DIVISION among God's people. So, as per Mr. Armstrong's instruction, I charge and exhort every one of you faithful ministers of the living Christ to explain this in no uncertain terms to your members, to warn them about this cause of division and then to disfellowship any who consort with GTA or any of his fellows." (Roderick C. Meredith, Pastor's Report, May 21, 1979, pp. 1-2.)

David Robinson on Roderick C. Meredith

"During the ten years I have been an employee of the Worldwide Church, you have been poorly spoken of by most of the ministers and employees I have known. I vividly remember the absolute unbounded glee that was openly expressed by a good number of respected men in the church when you were first "shanghaied." [In 1972.] I could begin by naming names, which I am sure would shock you. I was one of the few who stood, where possible, for you. Your tenure as superintendent of ministers, as I believe the office was then called, was looked on as nightmarish. While you held office during the years of growth, most of those whom I know gave you very little credit for that growth. Almost everyone whom I know, whether they be former friends of yours, or continuing foes, recalls insensitive and terrible things you have done. Without exception, at least among my acquaintances, they all credit you with an unbridled lust for power and list you as one who is willing to pay the price of gaining that power, no matter what. I have, through many of the last few years, believed you had principles you would not violate. Many a man of experience in the church assured me of my error. Events have proven me wrong and them right. Mr. Armstrong has himself been widely quoted as saying of you that you were so righteous that you were so "righteous you were unrighteous." " (David Robinson, Herbert Armstrong's Tangled Web, Chapter 16, p. 207.)

Of course it is impossible for me to personally verify these assertions but people deserve to know what this knowledgeable man had to say about him.